THE MILLION DOLLAR MEN

Anyone who downloads the group's new album off the Internet will be entered in a prize draw...

THE OFFSPRING are to place their entire new album, ‘CONSPIRACY OF ONE’, on the Internet for download well ahead of its November release.

And fans who take advantage of the offer will automatically be entered into a draw to win $1 million.

The band kick off what may become the biggest deal in downloadable music history on September 29 by placing their single ‘Original Prankster’ on their official site [url=]www.offspring.com. The album will follow within days. The winner of the $1 million prize will be announced live on MTV on November 14, the album’s retail release date.

In a posting on [url=]www.offspring.com, band frontman Dexter Holland explained that the money was coming from the band, not label or sponsors, as way of thanking fans for their support.

He said: “This money came directly to us from our fans. We feel it would be cool to redirect it back to them. We are trying to launch our album with promotions that are fan supportive rather than fan exploitative. We feel that giving them our music and letting them have back some of their money is a great way to show how much they mean to us.”

Placing tracks for download has worked in The Offspring’s favour in the past.

Their track ‘Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)’ was downloaded 22 million times in 10 weeks prior to its November 1998 release. The high profile secured them their first UK number one and also helped ‘Americana’, the album from which it was lifted, shift over 10.5 million copies worldwide.

Meanwhile, as a way of tempting fans to actually purchase the physical album, The Offspring are launching a special fanclub available only to anyone who buys a copy of the CD. On the disc will be a key that opens a coded part of the site offering exclusive downloads, animated films, chats with The Offspring and more.